Lets wade in the water

April 27, 2005 11:34 AM

Lets wade in the water, Coded slave songs.
posted by sgt.serenity (15 comments total)

Interesting.

I was wondering, since slavery has such deep roots in past and present Africa itself, are there also historic slave songs there? Maybe they really just carried over?
posted by HTuttle at 11:48 AM on April 27, 2005

I want to love this post, because I was thinking about making an FPP out of this topic. Really. But the link has crashed my Firfox twice, which makes me sad.
posted by OmieWise at 12:26 PM on April 27, 2005

Big Mama Thornton does an excellent version of this song on her album The Way It Is
posted by horsemuth at 12:35 PM on April 27, 2005

Wade in the water, that is...
posted by horsemuth at 12:36 PM on April 27, 2005

Great link. Thanks for posting this.
posted by Outlawyr at 12:47 PM on April 27, 2005

Cool - I've always thought about it but never actually seen many examples, thanks.
I wonder if the songs were actually instructive or if they were a stylized remnant of instructions passed down for years? Maybe I should read the page again.

OmieWise, it works fine on my FFX. nyahh :9
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:57 PM on April 27, 2005

Of course I already had some background on this from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air - learning+entertainment = lernutainment
posted by clarkie666 at 12:59 PM on April 27, 2005

A lot of early American songs had secret meanings.
Be it a Slave song or a hobo song. The lyrics gave
directions for safehouses and food. I think the hobo language is still used today.
posted by doctorschlock at 1:04 PM on April 27, 2005

Next person to use Java applet buttons on their little webpage is getting a punch in the babymakers.
posted by jsavimbi at 1:16 PM on April 27, 2005

My daughter and I both love Eva Cassidy's version of Wade in the Water, which got us interested in learning more about spirituals. When we did a little searching to find out more about the song, we mostly found lesson plans, which lead to some more good links.
posted by hoppytoad at 1:22 PM on April 27, 2005

Crashed Firefox for me as well.
posted by deborah at 3:35 PM on April 27, 2005

I did a talk on this for the Wellington Unitarians last year... Hopefully self-linking in the comments isn't too much of a sin... :)

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ehintz/191422.html
posted by ehintz at 4:06 PM on April 27, 2005

I just did a big lesson on this very topic with my elementary school music students. Great link.
posted by the_bone at 6:51 PM on April 27, 2005

Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie
posted by TimothyMason at 1:02 AM on April 28, 2005

My wife has taught elementary kids about other methods of coding of Underground Railroad directions, as told through Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. She actually had the class make a map of quilt squares. Her grandma's house lies on the Saratoga Battlefield and was one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad on the way to Canada.
posted by Doohickie at 7:00 AM on April 28, 2005